"Where is this man Jacob?" said Lord Beaucourt. "Oh—well, Jacob, it is too dark for you to have seen into the ponds. What makes you so sure that the boys fell in?"
Jacob repeated his story, and, in the alarm produced by being questioned by "my lord," he began that pawing movement which was his way of showing embarrassment.
"You saw the boys near the ponds, and desired them to return to the Castle. It does not seem to me that you have any valid reason for thinking that they went to the ponds at all. Mrs. Rayburn, go to your rooms, and I will send out the few men we have here to look for your little grandsons."
When Mrs. Rayburn, still wailing in a terrified manner, had been removed by the women-servants, Lord Beaucourt turned to Jacob.
"Look here, my man. You are not telling the whole truth about this matter. You met the boys near the ponds; where did you part from them?"
"Oh, my lord, it was on the north avenue, and they got into the spring cart and came on a bit, and then I bid them run home."
"Stand still, if you please." Jacob ceased to paw. "Had you any reason for concealing this from Mrs. Rayburn?"
"Only, my lord, I thought she'd be angry, seeing the boys had run off without her knowledge."
"Another time I should advise you to avoid foolish concealments. If anything has happened to these boys, whom you were the last person to see, and about whom you tell their grandmother half the truth, adding a perfectly gratuitous suggestion that the children are drowned, you may find yourself in a very awkward position. Mansfield, bring me my hat and coat, and send some one to the keeper's lodge, desiring him to meet me at the ponds at once."
Jacob volunteered to carry the message, and as Lord Beaucourt had very little suspicion that he had put the boys into the pond, he allowed him to go. I may mention that Jacob was not in the least alarmed, being quite too stupid to understand Lord Beaucourt's meaning.